Talking Sustainability with Industry Leaders

The M&E industry is undergoing a profound transformation as sustainability becomes not only an environmental imperative, but also a driver of innovation and operational efficiency. Companies are stepping up to address the environmental impact of content production and video consumption, and this shift is reshaping the industry’s priorities. We recently had the opportunity to speak to industry leaders from Evergent, Humans Not Robots (HNR), IMAX, and Monks about how they are spearheading efforts to integrate sustainable practices into their operations, demonstrating that environmental responsibility and creativity can go hand in hand.

For decades, TV and movie production has produced significant amounts of carbon emissions, but this resource-intensive production model is now quite rightly under scrutiny. As Lewis Smithingham, EVP Strategic Industries (Media, Entertainment, Games and Sports), Monks explains, “A lot of broadcasters, content creators, and producers, are asking themselves, why do we do these things? Why do we haul a truck all around the country? Why are we using copper wires to all our things? And a lot of the time the answer is, well, because that's how we've always done it.” There’s a growing realization across the industry that it doesn’t have to be like that.

From resource-intensive to resource-smart

This is driving the industry towards different ways of working such as remote production and producing content in the cloud. This approach not only slashes emissions but also provides creative teams with new levels of flexibility.

Smithingham describes how Monks has embraced cloud-based, software-defined production: “I look at the media and entertainment space as an awesome opportunity to drive innovation and sustainability, and when we look at sustainability in production, quite frankly, the easiest way to get that is through software defined production. We found that a production that would have usually involved driving all over the United States, producing masses of emissions, ended up producing just 0.7 metric tons of carbon when moved to the cloud.”

Similarly, IMAX has also taken meaningful steps to reduce wastage, minimize the impact of its operations and work more efficiently. Making these changes is important both from an environmental perspective, but also from a business viewpoint. As Edward Skolarus, Senior Director, Product Strategy, IMAX Streaming and Consumer Technology highlights, “It just makes good business sense to be efficient… so we always look for opportunities where we can reduce our footprint. It’s really important to us to make these changes - both financially and also to help save the planet”.

Alongside remote production and producing more content in the cloud, use of digital tools such as XR walls and virtual production are also key to making production more sustainable. As Smithingham explains “if you start looking at new ways to use things like virtual production, there are real opportunities to drive the demands of tomorrow's content, which is honestly primarily personalization, but also drive sustainability across production systems.” By using digital environments, studios can cut emissions by minimizing physical set builds, reducing travel, and streamlining workflows.

Technology’s role in creating greater visibility

To work more sustainably, organizations need data analytics and observability tools so they can gain granular insights into systems, resource use, and waste. Kristan Bullett, CEO of Humans Not Robots, explains, “there’s a lot of waste, and a lot of opportunity to reduce resource utilization - that's absolutely the foundation of sustainability [and of] Humans not Robots, which is a sustainability focused data analytics platform”.

Bullett goes on to explain how important it is to also have the right knowledge: “we're still in early days of sustainability, and knowledge is probably the biggest and most immediate barrier. No one's easily able to explain to organizations what they need to do, and why… and it is this knowledge that helps organizations bring the right people together, so they can make their first steps in sustainable technology”. 

Chris McCarthy, Industry Solutions Lead, GM M&E, explains how observability systems work: “underlying every observability tool are all the same types of data, such as metrics, events, logs and traces, which are just records of what happened in the system, how people interacted with it, and how the system interacted with other software systems”. He then goes on to explain how generative AI impacts observability, “with generative AI, the access patterns to that data become more natural. So rather than having to learn a special query language or navigate a UI component, natural language can be used to query data sets. This makes data more accessible to a much broader set of users. You no longer have to be an observability power user to get insights out of the data… and that's making observability systems more accessible to more of the company, as well as significantly more powerful.” This accessibility empowers companies to adopt more sustainable practices on a large scale, which may help to create ripple effects across the industry.

Culture change: building a sustainable mindset

Technology and innovation are essential, but for true transformation, there needs to be a cultural shift, and for this you need a willingness to change. Lalita Tadikonda, SVP, Corporate Strategy and Business Development, Evergent, has noticed that “customers, prospects and partners all now care more about sustainability”. She also described how Evergent itself is on the path to sustainability “we were already going through this journey of becoming more sustainable as a company and felt like we needed to take a more formal stance and look at sustainability guidelines, so began paying attention to them in our RFP responses to customers, and in communication to partners, to generally build a better, more sustainable ecosystem”. Tadikonda added that “Accedo has been our role model [in this process]. We saw how active Accedo has been in sustainability, not just in what it’s done, but also in helping its customers”.

Tadikonda also described how Evergent is working to promote sustainability across its entire operation: “Sustainability comes in different forms. There's social sustainability and governance as well as environmental, and we want to make sure all our employees are consciously talking about all aspects of sustainability. We’re a very diverse organization and want to make sure that 40% of our management team is composed of female leaders. Having that inclusion and diversity is very important from a social aspect”.

IMAX is also working to embed sustainability into its culture, engaging employees, customers, and other stakeholders in its sustainability journey to ensure that it is embraced throughout the organization and beyond. “We run sustainability programs, which is part of our DNA. Everybody joins up, and we just execute it through all the ranks, from HR onboarding right through to KPIs for the company”.  This approach helps to create a sense of collective responsibility. People need to feel empowered - they want to know that what they’re doing is making a difference. The power of individual action within a larger framework is key; as Skolarus says “if each person does something good, you see a big impact”.

The road ahead: a sustainable future

The industry is currently at a pivotal moment, where innovation and collaboration can come together to steer the industry toward a future that is not only more sustainable, but is also more resilient, dynamic and inclusive. By continuing to innovate and push boundaries, and by proving that sustainability is not just important for the environment, but is also good business practice, together, we can inspire other organizations to follow suit and support them in their sustainability journey.

To find out more about the transition to a more sustainable way of working, get in touch with Accedo.